Mona Saudi is one of the Middle East’s best known sculptors. Saudi’s work incorporates predominantly stone, using different forms of natural stone sourced from the Middle East. Through abstract forms, she explores themes of fertility and growth using shapes such as the square, circle, cylinder, and rectangle. Saudi builds onto these shapes a sense of movement by repeating their forms and creating differences in depths and heights to create powerful works with a sense of vitality and equilibrium.
She furthered her studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from which she graduated in 1973. Saudi’s works have been shown in solo and collective exhibitions worldwide, with solo shows at Saint John Perse Foundation, Aix-en-Provence in France in 2011, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery in Dubai in 2015 and the Sharjah Art Museum in 2018. Her participation in group shows includes the Institut du Monde Arabe in 1987 and 2012 respectively, as well as the Sursock Museum in 1993 and the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman in 2017. A monumental sculpture by Mona Saudi stands outside the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the French Embassy in Amman. She was awarded Jordan’s National Honorary Award from King Hussein in 1993.
Her work has been collected by prominent institutions including the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Kuwait, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sursock Museum in Lebanon and The Khalid Shoman Foundation among others.
